From Lawpack's Trace your Family Tree Kit.
Searching for your ancestors must begin with what you know about yourself, your parents and grandparents. This is the first rule: work from the known to the unknown.
Collect all the family documents you can and question your relatives. The older ones may know about letters, diaries, papers and dated photographs. They may be able to estimate ages and suggest locations, even if they cannot give the exact details of dates and places of births, marriages and deaths, which you will need to add in due course.
If you are lucky, there may be birthday books or even a Family Bible containing vital dates. It's not only the dates and places which are important; information about occupation and physical characteristics as well as family life and anecdotes should also be collected.
The source of every fact you are told or which you find in documents and books should be carefully noted. Sooner or later you will find that the various pieces of information you have collected might conflict with each other and you will need to be able to check back to see which source is likely to be more accurate.
You will find that even a source such as a Family Bible cannot always be relied upon, with entries being added years after the event and dates of birth calculated incorrectly from estimated ages at death.
Remember that when you ask older people about the family no person will tell you everything that he or she knows at one sitting or in one letter. You may need to go back several times, to trigger reminiscences with old photographs and to discuss the finds in your continuing research, when 'new' names or details may unlock further memories.
Don't neglect approaching younger children or cousins who may have nursed aged parents or grandparents and inherited their personal possessions.
Remember that members of the family who don't appear helpful or interested may be glad to point out errors when you circulate a draft pedigree of what you have found. Never overlook cousins overseas who may have cherished family letters and photographs as links with 'home' long after copies in Britain have been destroyed.
Sometimes the vaguest of remarks may prove unexpectedly useful at a later stage and every comment should be noted, together with its source and the date on which the information was given. Family stories often contain only an element of truth, and everything should be approached with an open mind until clear proof is forthcoming.
